‘AEGIS Ashore’ missile defence system in Romania undergoes update

NATO’s AEGIS Ashore Ballistic Missile Defence site in Romania will undergo a long-planned update this summer.

This update say the alliance, which has been taking place across the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence system fleet, will not provide any offensive capability to the Aegis Ashore missile defence system.

It is understood that the scheduled update is part of the United States European Phased Adaptive Approach to ballistic missile defence, which was announced in September 2009.

During the update, the United States will fulfill its commitment to NATO’s Ballistic Missile Defence by the temporary deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to Deveselu in Romania.

The THAAD unit will be under NATO operational control and the full political control of the North Atlantic Council. It will only remain operational until the Aegis Ashore Romania site is back online. The update and deployment are expected to last several weeks.

In accordance with NATO’s Ballistic Missile Defence system, the THAAD unit will be focused on potential threats from outside the Euro-Atlantic area. Aegis Ashore Romania is purely a defensive system.

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

I read of a cost of $800 million per THAAD battery.

Concerning the previous thread on UK BMD using T45, would it not be easier UK main land wise in buying this system off the Americans?

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Rob

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Saudi bought some a couple of years back for $15bn. Seven batteries, with 6 launchers each, so $2.14bn per battery. They are still developing the BMD version mind.

I would imagine that the real effective range isn’t published but the >200km figure stated on Wiki would mean we only needed 4 or so batteries for excellent coverage of the UK.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Fedaykin

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

I think the main issue with the UK getting a land based BMD capability is 1) Yet another thing to fit into the already stretched defence budget 2) It would be a magnet for groups like Stop the War Coalition and CND, it could end up being like Greenham common for the level of disruption! 3) Where would it go? Scotland? It would need to be somewhere remote but also not too down range of any allies.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Ulya

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

UK needs to invest in land based SAM, INF treaty is dead so we will develop long range land based cruise missiles and mid range ballistic missiles, this is much cheaper for us than building many new bombers and submarines to carry missiles and helps compensate for our weakness in other areas, in event of war the UK will be important supply hub for material from the US, therefore a very important target. God willing this never happens, but human nature being what it is..

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Daniele Mandelli

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

All good points and I’d not considered no 2!

Though Menwith Fylingdales Coulport Croughton all have their share of peace camps and protesters and this is defensive rather than offensive.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Ulya

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

That is a very confusing sentence and not sure I understand correctly, I will have to look for those place names to see where they are and I have not heard of peace camp term before so had to search what that meant. Surprised you did not think of UK being important supply hub, that and your navy blocking our submarines leaving north base had been the UK most important features. INF treaty going chances many things, with the new technology, hypersonic, 3d printing etc, we have entered a new and much more dangerous missile age than old cold war… Read more »

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

dave12

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Yes Putins hypersonic missile that he has so loudly promoted is one of the reason the US pulled out of the INF treaty.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Ulya

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Yes Dave, Putin has spoken loudly about them, it seems to be the only volume certain Western countries can hear

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

dave12

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Hmm I think after the salisbury incident and the hacking of the OPCW HQ ,plus the publication of mueller report Russia has a credibility issue with the west , maybe Putin should use the GRU less 😉

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Daniele Mandelli

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Sorry Ulya, a misunderstanding on your part. My comment above was for Fedaykin. I will reply to you now. Places – Menwith Hill is in Yorkshire, east of Harrogate. It is an NSA GCHQ spying hub, listens into phone calls, fax, telex, cables, satcom, and in the Cold War was especially directed at your good selves! Google it and you will see dozens of white “Golf Ball Radomes” these are antenna hidden behind these white covers that sniff out signals. It is also involved in the US BMD system. Fylingdales is also in Yorkshire, further east near the sea. It… Read more »

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Daniele Mandelli

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

The Sat Nav coordinates are……..

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Ulya

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Thank you very much Daniele

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Rokuth

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

” …one of 3 not on US territory. Others are at… and Clear in Alaska.”

Hmm… Last time I checked, Alaska is still part of the USA. If you mean not a part of the “Contiguous United States” then I would agree.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Daniele Mandelli

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Indeed Rokuth and I realised that after re reading my post. But I’d hope people get my drift.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Daniele Mandelli

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Where are comparable locations sited? Coastal?

These things must have relevant experts who can decide these questions in the MoD.

If something needs to be cut to find the budget I would imagine there would be many supportive of such a decision on a defensive system such as this.

I replied about item 2 further down in error too.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

BB85

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Does it even work? The cost is eye watering and in the event Russia did launch a missile they would launch several hundred. Trying to shoot them down would be completely pointless. Iran and N Korea are nowhere near this kind of capability so we can worry about it in 20 years when there is a cheaper solution.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Fedaykin

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

To be honest I am just not that keen on land based BMD for the UK, I think some moderate investment into exploring what it would take to add the capability to Type 45 is prudent. With the current Public Sector funding crisis with our schools going without basics like text books I find the idea of significant investment into land based BMD an extravagance too far! I think certainly keep an eye on what technologies are available and even do some case studies into what it would require to introduce the capability but beyond that I just don’t see… Read more »

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Daniele Mandelli

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

That’s fair enough Fedaykin. Was just a suggestion. I was not expecting the quite staggering costs when I looked into it.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

JohnHartley

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Spadeadam, where they tested the Blue Streak rockets. Suitably remote.

Reply

25 days ago

Guest

Cheddarfish

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Would it not be better to buy the S-400? Cheaper and more effective. I mean these systems are not there to counter Russia….they are to protect Europe from Iran, right?

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Sceptical Richard

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Why have they made it look like a ship? Down to the mast structure and satcom placing? Weird. All they needed were the four radar arrays and the missile radar tracker/illuminators.

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Airborne

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Richard, it’s called camouflage, no way will any possible aggressor think a ship is sat on a fucking hill in downtown Bucharest!

Reply

1 month ago

Guest

Sceptical Richard

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.